US Soldier Says He Was ‘Told to Lie’ About Iraqi Killings

A picture taken at the scene of the Haditha killings shows several dead Iraqis who were killed by Marines.

Have they always taught soldiers to piss on dead people, or was it a special directive Cheney and Rumsfeld came up with? Via Al Jazeera English:

A US soldier has told a military jury in California how his commander killed five Iraqi civilians in the western al-Anbar province in 2005 and then asked him to lie about it.

At a trial stemming from one of the Iraq war’s most controversial episodes, Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz testified on Wednesday, the third day of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich’s court martial.

Wuterich was Dela Cruz’s squad leader, who Dela Cruz said gunned down the Iraqis after they pulled up in a car near the scene of a bombing in which a US marine had died.

In all, 24 Iraqi civilians including women and children were killed in the revenge attacks – 19 in several houses along with the five men who pulled up in a car in the town of Haditha on November 19, 2005.

Victims unarmed

At the military trial in Camp Pendleton, California, Dela Cruz told prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Sean Sullivan that he saw the men outside the car on the side of the road.

He testified that the Iraqis did not appear to have any weapons and were not making any quick moves toward the car. He said he then saw a man drop to the ground.”That’s when I saw Staff Sergeant Wuterich kneeling with his gun aimed at the Iraqi. He was by the road holding the weapon in a firing position,” said Dela Cruz, demonstrating that position in the courtroom.

He said he could not recall how many gunshots he had heard. Dela Cruz also said that when he looked back in the direction of the car he did not see any of the men anymore.

“I run through there and crouched on the side of the vehicle. I saw four to five Iraqis dead near the trunk area of the car,” he said.

“I saw Sergeant Wuterich approach the bodies, he shot at them,” said Dela Cruz, adding that Wuterich went around to each corpse and shot it in the upper body from close range.

Revenge killings

“Sergeant Wuterich approached me and told me if anyone asks, the Iraqis were running away from the car and the Iraqi army shot them,” Dela Cruz said.

Dela Cruz, a veteran of three combat deployments, said he later urinated on the mangled head of one of the bodies, adding that he was “regretful” of his actions.

start the prosecutions with Bushy and the Gang of Stooges
and the rest of the troops will fall in line

there is a chain of command
Army Command Policy places the responsibly for a soldier’s actions
on his/her commanding officer
right on up the chain of command
however, in recent daze
all responsibility is now being placed on that lowest level

BuzzCoastin

start the prosecutions with Bushy and the Gang of Stooges
and the rest of the troops will fall in line

there is a chain of command
Army Command Policy places the responsibly for a soldier’s actions
on his/her commanding officer
right on up the chain of command
however, in recent daze
all responsibility is now being placed on that lowest level